As the Calgary days grow a bit shorter and the weather starts to cool, while your grass needs less care than during peak growing months, but it still requires some care and attention. The main reason for fall landscaping is to give your green space the best chance possible of a strong spring growth. As long as it’s not freezing overnight, you we still recommend to watering and cutting your grass. You won’t need to water nearly as much as usual, however, as fewer hours of daylight and colder temperatures means that your ground won’t dry out nearly as quickly.

As Mirage Landscaping, we continue to work to get your green space as healthy as possible before it starts to go dormant, which occurs when your grass decides the season is over and begins to pull its energy away from what is above the ground and draw it back into the roots. Because fall in Calgary rarely occurs in a nice, drawn-out and orderly manner, it’s not uncommon for snow to fall before grass has managed to prepare itself fully. That’s why preparing your green space as best you can is pivotal for a pain-free spring.

Be careful to keep people and pets off of your lawn once the blades start to freeze and before there is a decent protective layer of snow. Walking on frozen grass will break the blades, causing it to lie down and flatten. This provides the perfect conditions for mold and fungus to grow, and also can cause irreparable damage. In the spring, it’s not uncommon for grass that has been pushed down to have died, which means topsoil and seeding is necessary, or even a full replacement with sod.

Mowing

We recommend cutting your grass to about three inches high for the last part of the season, and to keep cutting at that height until the grass stops growing altogether. Three-inch tall grass is very good at remaining standing no matter what. Keep in mind, however, that grass should never be cut by more than a third each time, which means that it can’t be more than 4.5 inches high before mowing.

Aerate

Fall aeration and fertilizing is always a good idea. Aerators use punches to puncture the soil of your lawn, removing plugs of dirt and introducing air to the root system of the grass. Aerating is especially important for soils with higher compaction characteristics (as they are up here in Canada, where the ground is literally frozen for half the year), and for other soils such as clays or rocky substrates that easily produce “hard” ground. Compaction can also be the result of high foot traffic, which is very common in commercial areas.

It’s not as necessary to aerate in the fall as it is in the spring, but it will give your property a better chance in the spring. Rather than simply running off, moisture from melting snow will more easily find its way to the roots of the plants soften the ground, making spring rain all that much more beneficial.

A high-nitrogen (the first number on the fertilizer bag), slow release fertilizer is perfect for the fall, and providing a dependable food source that is better for the environment.

Take Care of Your Irrigation

A thorough draining of your underground sprinklers is essential ahead of winter. Trapped water in these will expand dramatically once frozen and damage or rupture your pipes, which could cause further extensive damage to your landscaping. We provide compressed air blow outfor large and small underground irrigation systems.

The Calgary Landscaping Experience You Need

Schedule Mirage Landscaping for your Calgary fall clean up as soon as possible to put your residential or commercial property properly to bed for winter.